Hello again PSF. Busy times on my end, but I got to spend some time hacking around with the PlanetSide client tonight.

Friday Night Hacking

Core combat isn't enabled on the server side, but the PlanetSide client doesn't care! I messed around with map loading state changes and I was able to fake load some cave maps, while being networked on a real continent. To other people it would look quite strange as I would be flying around ignoring any collision detection. Somethings I learned about the game from tonight:

All physics and collision detection is clientside. If this were to be removed, then walls, doors, or the floor wouldn't stop you

Water damage is server-side

Nearly all of the interesting GM commands are patched out of the client. Like the code has literally been compiled out. This is quite sad as I suspect the server probably has more than a fair share of strange bugs regarding these commands.

There are multiple embedded command processors within planetside that allows for high level actions to to take place. For example, the command for loading a map is 'psc_loadmap'. This goes for the creation of all game objects as well. Logging the calls to these command processors should help figure out how the game is running

The /paintball command is locked behind a special bit on the client, but once enabled it allows the creation of floating text anywhere in the world. It's simply a debug tool and nothing else.

The cave maps are located in the PlanetSide/expansion1 folder and are prefixed as ugd. Example: ugd01

When loading in to a cave map while actually running on a bigger continent, the cave map is always towards the bottom left corner of the overworld map. This is where PlanetSide's (0, 0) coordinate lies.

There is a /spectator command in the client, but unfortunately it is patched out

Here are some screenshots:

Website NewsMy site is now fully backed up with a disaster recovery plan in place. I can now sleep easy. PSF will never die, NCGauss.Sorry for all of the horrible spam that has cropped up recently. There is a dedicated and passionate group of people who want this project to burn. We should expect more things like this in the future. Active couter-measures are in place and I keep quite a close eye on server health.

Login Server CodingNot much has gotten done in this area unfortunately. This is quite important, but the momentum has been lost. Spring break is coming up for me soon and I hope to get some serious coding in then.At least what I have done so far is open source. I need all of the help I can get in this area. Code doesn't write itself.

Packet CapturesWe are nearly at 10 million total packets captured! Holy crap, great work team!

PlanetSide Forever DiscordIf you didn't know, PSF has its own Discord server, courtesy of Naeadil. This has probably limited the number of posts on the forums, but it's certainly a lot easier to chat than to write up a lengthy post. Glad this is helping keep the community together. If you are not in it already, ask me or Naeadil for an invite.

Great to hear that you will have lots of time during spring break to get some work done, maybe you should see if some other programmers are interested in helping with the coding of the login server as it seems you don't have much time to work on this project.

Sorry that I have not been contributing to those packet captures at all, I am not able to capture for some reason.

Hi there, looking to offer my services as a developer - but can't send Chord a PM because I'm "too new" on the forum.

I know my way around C/C++/C#/Scala, and have helped maintain a bridge between Scala and Erlang, a language in which I've spent a bunch of time writing and maintaining backends for the video game industry. One such project is Apache CouchDB, where I also sit on the Project Management Committee. My GitHub profile is @wohali, though a lot of my work in GH is hidden behind private organizations in private repos.

In the PlanetSide world I am a member of the top-level Eidolon Council with Ghosts of the Revolution (GOTR), one of the oldest PlanetSide outfits - dating from the start of PS1 beta and still active today, primarily in PS2.

I'm semi-retired right now and looking for a project to tinker with in my spare time. My love for PS1 is strong and I've always fancied starting a project like this one...but you actually went and did it, which is what counts. Thank you! I can't promise I have enough energy to be a dedicated core committer, but anything's possible if my interest is piqued and the code is fun enough to play with.

Let me know how I can help. I'd love to help make this a reality somehow.